"The primary regulator of Wall Street, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) kept in place trading rules that let speculators and hedge funds turn our markets into a casino," McCain says."They allowed naked short selling  which simply means that you can sell stock without ever owning it. They eliminated last year the uptick rule that has protected investors for 70 years. Speculators pounded the shares of even good companies into the ground."

Somebody help me out here. This all sounds more plausible than Sarah Palin's nattering about construction bonds yesterday, but does it actually parse any better? I know Jim Cramer has been bellowing about the uptick rule for several months, but it's not pressure on stock prices that's been responsible for the banking crisis, is it? It's the other way around. Do McCain's comments make any sense? Set me straight in comments.